Month: April, 2012

Songwriter Jodi Shaw’s chamber-pop song cycle, In Waterland, is being re-released mid-month. By “song cycle,” that is to say theme and variations; forty years ago, people used to call these things concept albums. The obvious comparison is Aimee Mann, both in terms of brooding, wounded persona and purist, artsy pop sensibility. Shaw plays the album release show on May 15 at 7 PM at the Nuyorican Poets Cafe: if smart, biting, literate lyrics, catchy tunes and unselfconsciously attractive vocals are your thing, you should go see her.

The arrangements manage to be stately and often majestic yet very simple, just Shaw’s piano and nuanced vocals along with terse string arrangements, shimmering guitar atmospherics and occasional low-key rhythm. Swimming is the central motif here, and it’s traumatic. It’s not known whether Shaw – pictured in a bathing cap, in water up to her neck on the album cover – is the strong but fading, emotionally depleted swimmer in the album’s harrowing title track, or whether she has other feelings for the water. That’s a major part of the album’s appeal.

The opening cut, simply titled Swim, sets the tone, the blithe bounce of the melody ultimately unable to conceal the hopelessness of the lyric, sharks circling as a “sound and steady ship” departs, promising to return someday to rescue the woman in the water. Cruelly surreal and evocative, The Witch (not the Sonics song, or the one by Donovan for that matter) pictures a former beauty all alone and facing a hostile, clueless crowd of conformists who’d gladly burn her as their forefathers would have done three hundred years ago. Jack and Jill takes a hypnotic post-Velvets melody and spices it up with piano and some watery tremolo guitar: Shaw’s perplexed narrator can’t figure out why the guy let go of the girl’s hand after the two had successfully made it down the hill.

The torchy Mystery of Love comes as a surprise, with its jaunty gypsy/cabaret vibe and a lyric that starts out seductive and turns unexpectedly menacing. The downward trajectory picks up steam with the swinging, bucolic To the Country (We Go), a late 60s-style psychedelic pop number that again shifts from blithe to bleak: “A soft rain falls on my blouse, and now there is no doubt I see Gallows Hill in that house,” Shaw announces quietly as ebow guitar oscillates hypnotically behind her. This Balloon (Ode to Zvezdochka) intermingles images of planes and trains with an exasperated anger over lush minor-key orchestration: it’s both the most classically-oriented and Aimee Mann-esque cut here. Then all the foreshadowing explodes with the kiss-off anthem Fortunate Prince, a violent tale cached in an elegant arrangement. After the bloodshed runs its course, the narrator muses on what she might say if and when she reaches the afterlife: “There was something exciting about him when he was alive.” And then despair settles in with the understated but towering intensity of the title track.

Hell’s Bells – not the song you’re thinking of – shifts from a precise tiptoeing hip-hop beat to a lush sway, a bitter chronicle of failure with neatly intricate layers of twin vocals a la David J’s Stop This City as it winds out. But as the album comes full circle, she’s ready for the breakup guy, and the deadpan sarcasm is deadly. The album’s concluding cut is a somewhat more brisk solo piano version of the title track, which is just as good as the studio take. It’s a quiet, relentlessly intense masterpiece. The audience for this is potentially vast: any morose indie film whose music director might be contemplating something by Aimee Mann, or for that matter Feist or Neko Case, also ought to have Jodi Shaw as part of the soundtrack.

For directions and other information on the venues where these shows are happening, check the exhaustive guide to over 200 New York live music venues at NYMD’s sister blog, Lucid Culture.

Times listed here are set times, not the time doors open – if a listing says “9ish,” that means it’ll probably start later than advertised. Always best to check with the venue for the latest information on set times and door charges, since that information is often posted here weeks in advance. Weekly events first followed by the daily calendar:

Oldschool Chicago style blues guitarist Irving Louis Lattin has a lot of May shows coming up. He’s at Terra Blues on 5/1, 5/9, 5/23 and 5/30 at 7 and Lucille’s on 5/4 and 5/18 at 8 PM.

Mondays starting a little after 7 PM Howard Williams leads his Jazz Orchestra from the piano at the Garage, 99 7th Ave. S at Grove St. There are also big bands here most every Tuesday at 7.

Mondays at the Jazz Standard it’s all Mingus, whether with the Mingus Orchestra, Big Band or Mingus Dynasty: as jazz goes, it’s arguably the most exhilarating show of the week, every week. The first-rate players always rise to the level of the material. Sets 7:30/9:30 PM, $25 and worth it.

Also Monday nights Vince Giordano’s Nighthawks, a boisterous horn-driven 11-piece 1920s/early 30’s band play Sofia’s Restaurant, downstairs at the Edison Hotel, 221 West 46th Street between Broadway & 8th Ave., 3 sets from 8 to 11, surprisingly cheap $15 cover plus $15 minimum considering what you’re getting. Even before the Flying Neutrinos or the Moonlighters, multi-instrumentalist Giordano was pioneering the oldtimey sound in New York; his long-running residency at the old Cajun on lower 8th Ave. is legendary. He also gets a ton of film work (Giordano wrote the satirical number that Willie Nelson famously sang in Wag the Dog).

Mondays at Tea Lounge in Park Slope at 9:30 PM trombonist/composer JC Sanford books big band jazz, an exciting, global mix of some of the edgiest large-ensemble sounds around. If you’re anybody in the world of big band jazz and you make it to New York, you end up playing here: what CBGB was to punk, this unlikely spot promises to be to the jazz world. No cover.

Mondays in May, 9:30ish Chicha Libre plays their home turf at Barbes. The world’s most vital, entertaining oldschool chicha band, they blend twangy, often noir Peruvian surf sounds with cumbia and other south-of-the-border styles along with swirling psychedelic jams and deep dub interludes. Show up early because they are insanely popular.

Also Mondays in May Rev. Vince Anderson and his band play Union Pool in Williamsburg, two sets starting around 11:15 PM. The Rev. is one of the great keyboardists around, equally thrilling on organ or electric piano, an expert at Billy Preston style funk, honkytonk, gospel and blues. He writes very funny, very politically astute, sexy original songs and is one of the most charismatic, intense live performers of our time. It’s a crazy dance party til past three in the morning. Paula Henderson from Burnt Sugar is the lead soloist on baritone sax, with Dave Smith from Smoota and the Fela pit band on trombone, with frequent special guests.

The first and fourth Tuesdays of the month at Central Synagogue (685 Lexington Ave. at 55th St.). there are free organ and sometimes chamber music concerts at half past noon, a great way to chill out if you can sneak away from work for about an hour. It’s a global mix of talent assembled by acclaimed organist Gail Archer.

Tuesdays 8-11 PM the Michael Arenella Quintet plays hot and cool vintage jazz at the Empire Room on the first floor of the Empire State Building, $10 cover plus $10 minimum.

Tuesdays in May clever, fiery, eclectic Balkan/hip-hop/funk brass maniacs Slavic Soul Party play Barbes at 9. Get there as soon as you can as they’re very popular.

Wednesdays there are free organ concerts at 1:10 PM sharp on at St. Ann’s Church on Montague St. in downtown Brooklyn.

Wednesdays at 9:30 Roosevelt Dime plays their unique mix of oldtimey string band music with a dash of classic 60s soul at Brooklyn Winery, 213 North 8th Street, Williamsburg.

Thursdays at 1 PM in May on 5/3, 5/10 and 5/24, and also Fri, 5/18 highly regarded new music student ensemble Ensemble ACJW plays works by contemporary composers at Trinity Church, free, could be a fascinating series to catch if you work or go to school in the neighborhood.

Saturdays at 3 PM at Bargemusic there are impromptu free classical concerts, usually solo piano or small chamber ensembles: if you get lucky, you’ll catch pyrotechnic violinist/music director Mark Peskanov and/or the many members of his circle. Early arrival advised.

Saturdays eclectic compelling Brazilian jazz chanteuse Marianni and her excellent band at Zinc Bar, three sets starting at 10 PM.

Sundays there’s a klezmer brunch at City Winery, show starts around 11:30 AM – 2 PM, $10 cover, no minimum, lots of good bands.

Sundays there are free organ concerts at 5:15 PM at St. Thomas Church, 5th Ave. and 53rd St. The big Skinner organ’s days are numbered: it’s a mighty beast, so see it before it’s gone. The weekly series (with breaks for holidays) features an extraordinary, global cast of performers.

Three Sundays in June: 6/3, 6/17 and 6/24 jazz guitarist Peter Mazza – a subtle and soulful player whom Gene Bertoncini has endorsed – leads a series of intriguing trios at the Bar Next Door, 7:30 PM

Every Sunday the Ear-Regulars, led by trumpeter Jon Kellso and (frequently) guitarist Matt Munisteri play NYC’s only weekly hot jazz session starting around 8 PM at the Ear Inn on Spring St. Hard to believe, in the city that springboarded the careers of thousands of jazz legends, but true. This is by far the best value in town for marquee-caliber jazz: for the price of a drink and a tip for the band, you can see world-famous players (and brilliant obscure ones) you’d usually have to drop $100 for at some big-ticket room. The material is mostly old-time stuff from the 30s and 40s, but the players (especially Kellso and Munisteri, who have a chemistry that goes back several years) push it into some deliciously unexpected places.

Sundays in May at 9 gypsy guitar genius Stephane Wrembel plays Barbes. He’s holding on to the edgy, danceable spirit of Django Reinhardt while taking the style to new and unexpected places. He’s also very popular: get there early.

4/29, 7 PM perhaps the world’s greatest current composer for the oud, Marcel Khalife and the Al Mayadine Ensemble play a musical interpretation of the late great Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish’s elegaic final work, In the Presence of Absence at Town Hall, $30 tix avail., get them now!

4/29 Band of Outsiders at Lakeside, 9 PM with special guests including Certain General’s Phil Gammage. Unstoppable, eternally fresh psychedelic punk rockers from the CBGB era, better than the Jesus & Mary Chain and Brian Jonestown Massacre, both of whom they influenced.

5/1 the Curtis Institute of Music’s Ensemble39 plays their signature piece, Prokofiev’s Quintet, Op. 39 plus new work by Gabriella Smith (protegee of Jennifer Higdon) at the Miller Theatre, 6 PM, free, early arrival advised since there’s free beer. This is not a joke.

5/1, 7 PM torchy purist jazz-pop pianist/songwriter Abby Payne at the small room at the Rockwood

5/1, 7:30 PM the Cathedral Choirs, under the direction of Kent Tritle plus Nina Stern, recorders and chalumeau; Ara Dinkjian, oud; Glen Velez, percussion; Tamer Panarbasi, kanun; and Arthur Fiacco, cello play traditional and sacred music from eastern Europe at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, $20 seating avail.

5/1, 7:30 PM Members of the Artemis Quartet with Jacques Ammon on piano play Beethoven, Brahms and Piazzolla at le Poisson Rouge, $15 adv tix rec.

5/2 Isaac Darche on guitar with Sean Wayland on ogan and Mark Ferber on drums, 6:30 PM at the Bar Next Door, free.

5/2, 8 PM at Arlene’s Single Red Cent– who mix sharp, socially aware punk with a more atonal Gang of Four/Neighborhoods vibe – followed eventually at 11 PM by the Sunday Belts playing torchy female-fronted funk

5/3, 6:30 PM cerebral but incisive and often powerful original jazz: Nils Weinhold on guitar with Linda Oh on Bass and Bastian Weinhold on drums at the Bar Next Door, free. Amazing bass trio Castle Magic with Santi DeBriano, Harvie S and Essiet Essiet follows with sets at 8:30/10:30 for a $12 cover.

5/3 8 PM Gearshifter a.k.a. Mississippi delta bluesman Louis Youngblood continues the tradition of Tommy Johnson and Robert Johnson with his own gritty acoustic stuff at Arlene’s, followed eventually at 11 by the early 70s style stoner metal of Will McCranie and band and then at midnight by Willamette who veer between catchy dark Morphine grooves and Queens of the Stone Age riffage

5/4, 7 PM at the Greene Space it’s the Battle of the Boroughs Staten Island band playoffs. Most battle-of-the-bands competitions are stupid and extortionistic: not this one. Last year’s winner was an Indian avant garde rock band who were actually quite good. This year’s contestants include the Headlocks ; Fairday Skyline; the Mick Watley Band; Silas Knight & the Brooklyn Horns; Vantage Point; the Bad Mouth Betties, and Kazatzky, $15 cover includes a glass of wine; $30 gets you in for all you can drink wine and beer.

5/4, 1 AM (actually wee hours of 5/5) oldschool soul/funk band Empire Beats fronted by sultry chanteuse Camille Atkinson at the small room at the Rockwood.

5/5, 11 AM Symphony Space’s latest Wall to Wall all-day free concert is a homage to Gertrude Stein. Highlights: Debussy’s Sonata for Flute, Violin and Harp at 11; chamber music by Poulenc and Milhaud; all kinds of cabaret played by the erudite but fiery accordionist/chanteuse Marni Rice and band; vintage Stein collaborations with Virgil Thompson and others; and high-voltage 20s hot jazz by Michael Arenella’s Dreamland Orchestra to wind up the night at around 8. Too many acts to list; the full calendar is here.

5/5, 4 and 8 PM the Shanghai Quartet plays the complete Bartok String Quartets in two separate concerts at the Kasser Theatre at Montclair St. University in Montclair, NJ, charter bus available behind Port Authority leaving at 2 PM, $15 per concert.

5/5, 6 PM pianist/chanteuse Mary Lorson & the Soubrettes play edgy, witty oldtime-flavored songs from their excellent new album Burn Baby Burn at the small room at the Rockwood.

5/5, 7:30 PM Nami Kineie (shamisen), Yumi Kurosawa (koto), James Nyoraku Schlefer (shakuhachi), and the Voxare String Quartet perform music by Daron Hagen, a New York premiere by Paul Moravec, and world premieres by Somei Satoh and James Nyoraku Schlefer at the World Financial Ctr., free

5/5 art-rocker Pierre de Gaillande and band playing his spot-on English-language versions of Georges Brassens classics at Barbes, 8 PM.

5/6, half past noon, amazing retro Memphis soul band the One and Nines – fronted by the charismatic, torchy Vera Sousa – followed by the ever-more-purist honkytonk sounds of Demolition String Band at the Hoboken Arts & Music Festival, Newark St at Washington St., around the corner from the CVS three blocks from the Path train station

5/7, 7:30 PM the purpose of this calendar is not to encourage people to stay in, but if you are in tonight, WQXR, 105.9 FM is broadcasting the Houston Symphony’s performance of Shostakovich’s 11th Symphony from Carnegie Hall. They’ll also be broadcasting (and webcasting) other concerts every night through May 11.

5/7, 10ish a classic night to celebrate the continued existence of the mostly-weekly Small Beast rock night upstairs at the Delancey with noir rock legend David J (from Bauhaus), noir cabaret stars Little Annie and Paul Wallfisch and then Wallfisch solo to wrap up the night, hopefully playing material from his band Botanica’s amazing, haunting new art-rock album What Do You Believe

5/13, 6 PM an eclectic improv doublebill with Sarah Buechi on vocals and Christoph Knoche on bass clarinet and harmonica, followed by Daniel Levin doing solo and duo cello (!?) at Downtown Music Gallery

5/13, 7 PM organist Gregory Eaton – a charismatic performer who communicates his vast knowledge with wit and flair – leads an ensemble performing works for organ and brass by Bonelli, Dupre, Gigout, Hurd, Phillips and Strauss at St. Ann’s Church in Brooklyn Heights, $25, proceeds to benefit the ongoing restoration of the mighty 1925 organ there.

5/16 samba-rock duo Brothers of Brazil, acoustic punk band Old Man Markley and reggae/ska band the Aggrolites play the Rocks Off Concert Cruise aboard the Jewel, boarding at 7, departing at 8 from the heliport at 23rd St. and the FDR, $25 tix available at the Highline box office

5/16, 8 PM one of the year’s best bills so far: intense Balkan trio Which Way East, scorching Balkan jam band Raya Brass Band and then Choban Elektrik playing the cd release show for their wild, trippy new one, a psychedelic take on classic Balkan tunes at Rock Shop.

5/17 the self-explanatory, psychedelic NY Funk Exchange plays the Rocks Off Concert Cruise, boarding at 7, leaving at 8 from the heliport at 23rd St. and the FDR, $20 adv tix avail.at the Highline box office. They’re also at the big room at the Rockwood on May 19 at midnight for $5, then at Groove at 9 on 5/22 and 5/30

5/17-20 Ryan Truesdell leads his ambitious and amazing Gil Evans Project, a big band tribute to Evans featuring three nights of rare and previously unreleased compositions spanning Evans’ entire career, soon to be released on Truesdell’s upcoming Centennial album with a group including Lewis Nash, Donny McCaslin, Steve Wilson, Frank Kimbrough, Greg Gisbert, and Marshall Gilkes at the Jazz Standard, 7:30/9:30 PM, $25 ($30 on the weekend).

5/17, 9:30 PM cutting-edge original gypsy jazz guitarist Stephane Wrembel and band play the cd release show for their new one at Joe’s Pub, $22.

5/17, 10ish ferocious, brilliant guitarist Deniz Tek, founding member of garage-punk legends Radio Birdman at Bowery Electric, $10 – this might be his first-ever Manhattan gig as a solo artist.

5/17, 10 PM if you love Oasis, wait til you hear Second Dan at the big room at the Rockwood.

5/17, 11 PM edgy chamber-pop/jangle/indie band Bern & the Brights at the small room at the Rockwood

5/18 opening night of the Gypsy Tabor Festival starting at 4 PM with Romanian band Raklorom, 8-piece Balkan instrumentalists Brazda at 5, percussionist/bandleader Alessandra Belloni at 6, trumpet legend Frank London at 7, and charismatic gypsy punk/metal cumbia band Escarioka headlining at 9 at the grounds of the Onderdonk House, 1820 Flushing Ave, Ridgewood, Queens, $20 per day or $35 two-day pass available at Mehanata, camping also available

5/18-19, 7:30 PM the Argento Chamber Ensemble plays music of Bernhard Lang (world premiere) plus Concept Silke Grabinger “including the building in the presentation of the music,” i.e. the whole building (not just the concert hall) takes part in the performance, at the Austrian Cultural Center, 11 E 52nd St., free, early arrival advised.

5/18, 8 PM a festival of new art-song with singers Mary Hubbell, David Salsbery Fry, and Seth Gilman with pianists Mirna Lekic and David Friend performing new song cycles by André Brégégère, Daniel Colson, Ramin Heydarbeygi, and Osnat Netzer at WMP Concert Hall, $10 sugg don.

5/19 day two of the Gypsy Tabor Festival has Bulgarian alto sax star Yuri Yunakov and band at 3:30, then a break with music resuming at 6 with bouzouki virtuoso Avram Pengas and Bad Buka headlining at 8 at Onderdonk House, 1820 Flushing Ave, Ridgewood, Queens, $20 per day or $35 two-day pass available at Mehanata, , camping also available

5/19, 8:30 PMish rustic, powerful oldschool gypsy band Harmonia at the Ukrainian National Home on 2nd Ave., $10.

5/19, 8:30 PM ferociously lyrical, smart, jangle/dreampop rockers the Brixton Riot at Fat Baby is CANCELLED due to doublebooking by the club. Their new album Palace Amusements is one of 2012’s ten best, no doubt.

5/19, 9 PM surfy Brooklyn chicha rockers Chicha Libre play the album release show for their wildly psychedelic new one Canibalismo, which along with Raya Brass Band’s new album is 2012′s funnest record, $10.

5/19, 9 PM well-loved goth rockers Night Gallery play the album release show for their new one at R Bar.

5/22-27 lyrical jazz pianist Fred Hersch has a stand at the Jazz Standard, 7:30/9:30 PM. The 5/22 show is a duo with Miguel Zenon; 5/23, with Ambrose Akinmusire; 5/24, with Julian Lage; 5/25-26 with Dave Holland and Billy Hart; and 5/27 with Renee Marie.

5/22, 8 PM playfully virtuosic piano duo Anderson and Roe (whose cover of Michael Jackson’s Billy Jean is funny but not as good as as the Threeds Oboe Trio’s version) at Galapagos playing the cd release show for their new one, $20 adv tix rec.

5/24, 8:30 PM pianist Mitch Schechter’s New American Quartet feat. Greg Wall on the saxophone, Takashi Otsuka on the acoustic bass, and Jonathon Peretz on the drums playing original compositions at 6th St. Synagogue, $10

5/29, 10 PM Bang on a Can’s Vicky Chow solo on piano at the Stone, $10.

5/30, 7:30 PM stunningly eclectic classical/Middle Eastern/gypsy/worldbeat string band Trio Tritticali play the album release show for their phenomenal new one at the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, 58 7th Ave. (corner of Lincoln Pl.), Park Slope, $10/$5 stud.

5/30, 8 PM the Tarras Band – sort of the klezmer equivalent of the Mingus bands – playing the great Dave Tarras’ originals and arrangements at 6th St. Synagogue, $15 incl. a drink.

5/31, 8 PM an intriguing jazz doublebill with the Seung-Hee Han Band feat Frank LoCrasto and Adam Kolker followed at 9:30 by guitarist Mike Baggetta with Jason Rigby on sax, Zack Lober on bass and the inimitable George Schuller on drums at ShapeShifter Lab, 18 Whitwell Placebtw 1st St. and Carroll St., Park Slope

5/31, 9:30 PM dark acoustic Americana/blues/torch song group the Sometime Boys’ cd release show at the Parkside.

5/31, 10 PM the Gregg August Group does what’s essentially a live rehearsal at the Fat Cat. A powerful, politically aware composer and a smartly melodic player, one of the most interesting four-string guys in jazz

6/1, 8 PM an eclectic, amusingoldtime/Americana quadruplebill at the Bell House with Woodpecker, the Gentleman Callers, all-female Dolly Parton cover band Doll Parts and the satirical Menage a Twang, $10

6/2 organist Christopher Houlihan plays symphonic works by legendary, cutting-edge French composer Louis Vierneto commemorate the 75th anniversary of his death at the Church of the Ascension, 5th Ave. at 10th St. At 3 PM he plays Symphonies 1, 3 and 5; and at 7:30 PM, Symphonies 2, 4 and 6.

6/2, 9 PM Jack Grace’s surreal, funky, late 90s/early zeros jamband Steak is back together and they’re playing at Brooklyn Rod & Gun Club. Come see how hard the Martini Cowboy used to rock: they’re great fun live.

6/5, 8 PM a whopper of a veteran LES rock quadruplebill: Lakeside all-stars Los Dudes, legendary and perennially fresh psychedelic punk/dreampop pioneers Band of Outsiders, their friends Certain General and John Cale collaborator/chanteuse Deerfrance with her band at Local 269, free

6/5, 8 PM legendary reggae crooner Jimmy Cliff at Prospect Park Bandshell. This you won’t get into unless you get there obscenely early, so best to view from outside the arena. And please don’t fall for the beggars asking for the absurd $3 donation – all this is paid for by corporate and taxpayer money many times over.

6/7, noon, Larry Graham & Graham Central Station at Metrotech Park in downtown Brooklyn, free. Reputedly the pantheonic bassist from Sly Stone’s band is every inch as dangerous as he was 40+ years ago.

6/7 comedic chanteuse Jessica Delfino presents the NY Funny Songs Fest, something that deserves to exist. Day 1 is at 6 PM at Lolita Bar, 266 Broome St, cover is $8. It continues on 6/10 with two shows at 2 and 4:30 PM at Culturefix for $10

6/7, 7ish a “survivors of Max’s Kansas City” night with what’s left of the Shirts followed eventually by the Sic Fucs at Bowery Electric, $15 adv tix rec.

6/7, 7:30 PM percussionist/composer Eli Keszler with Anthony Coleman, organ and celeste; Ashley Paul, saxes and clarinet; Alex Waterman, cello; Spencer Yeh, violin; Catherine Lamb, viola; Geoff Mullen, guitar; and Reuben Son, bassoon play the album release show for Keszler’s ambitious new site-specific piece L-Carrier at Eyebeam Art & Technology Center, 540 W. 21st St. in NYC, between 10th and 11th Aves. and streaming live at www.turbulence.org/works/l-carrier. The installation will remain on display through 6/23. Careful! A spycam is involved in the live performance!

6/11, 11ish irresistibly assaultive noiserockers the Sediment Club at Death by Audio, $7.

6/11, midnight the twisted funny retro 60s country stylings of the Jack Grace Band at at the Ear Inn

6/12, 5:30 PM bassist Gregg August may be best known for his work in JD Allen’s pbands, but he’s also a brilliant, socially aware composer – he leads his quintet on the plaza out back of the World Financial Center

6/14, 9 PM Laura Marling at Prospect Park Bandshell. Recommended with several caveats: the place will be crawling with yuppies and trendoids, and as pleasant and purist as the Britfolk chanteuse is, she’s not worth sitting through two hot, terminally boring hours of Willy Mason and Michael Kiwanuka. Although some of the yuppies’ puppies might start whining, in which case they might leave and there might be room for you. But maybe not.

6/14, 10 PM inscrutable cellist/multi-instrumentalist/siren Serena Jost and her band at Barbes

6/16, 3 (three) PM a daylong Americana show at the Jalopy with blues guitar powerhouse Will Scott, Low & the Lonesome, the Dirt Floor Revue, Nikki Sue & the Bad News, the haunting oldtimey Michaela Anne and band at 7, dark acoustic Nashville gothic crew Frankenpine at 8, the Newton Gang doing the cd release show for their long-awaited new one at 9, the High Irons at 10 and the Grand Prospect at 11. Whew.

6/16, 3 PM string quintet Cyrene – which is quartet Brooklyn Rider plus an extra cello – play a musical interpretation of 12th century Persian poet Nezami’s Layla and Majnun, a sort of percursor to Romeo and Juliet with music by music by Colin Jacobsen, Giovanni Sollima, Henry Purcell, and Vartabed Komitas plus traditional Armenian and Persian melodies at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, $15 (your ticket also includes admission to the museum if you feel like a treat for the eyes before or after).

6/19, 5:30 PM pyrotechnic virtuoso Colombian harpist Edmar Castaneda on the plaza at the World Financial Center. He’s also at One New York Plaza at 6/21 at 5 (five).

6/19, 7:30 PM the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra plays Grieg’s Holberg Suite plus Romanian folk dances arranged by Bartok along with works by Rossini and Mozart at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, early arrival advised if you want a seat.

6/20, 6:30 PM the Cassatt String Quartet play a program of nocturnes including Night by Ernst Bloch; Cypresses (excerpts) by Antonin Dvorak; Quiet Time (excerpts) by Sebastian Currier; Nocturne from Qt. 2 by Alexander Borodin; Restless Nation (excerpts) by Andy Teirstein; Lullaby by George Gershwin at the Hayden Planetarium, $15

6/20, 6:30 PM bassist Katie Thiroux and her Quartet play swing jazz outdoors on the plaza at the Brooklyn Public Library at Grand Army Plaza, free.

6/20, 7 PM the Philip Glass Ensemble at Rockefeller Park at Chambers St. and the river.

6/20, 10ish smart, tuneful female-fronted powerpop band Delusions of Grand Street play the ep release show for their new one at Bowery Electric, $8.

6/21 is the ostensibly all-day busk-a-thon Make Music NY. Lately the trend has been that bands reserve space for the day and play at night. The whole schedule is here: check out who’s in your neighborhood or playing on your walk to the train.

6/21, 4 PM furry-suited ragtime band the Xylopholks, Indian classical Carnatic Ensemble and the Prokofiev Sonata for 20 Violins performed live outside Cornelia St. Cafe

6/22 the Mynabirds with their politically fueled female-fronted American/folk rock at the Mercury.

6/22, 8 PM art-rocker Pierre de Gaillande and band playing his spot-on English-language versions of Georges Brassens classics at Barbes followed at 10 by ten-piece bhangra funk orchestra Brooklyn Qawwali Party.

6/24, 5ish PM the Alabama Shakes at Central Park Summerstage. Isn’t it nice that a band that plays real soul music has blown up bigtime? Of course it is. Is it worth getting here at 3 on the button when the gates open and then suffering through the tedium of Robert Ellis and Diamond Rugs just to see them? No.

6/24, 7:30 PM Indonesian choral music with the 24-piece Manado State University Choir directed by André de Quadros at St. Paul’s Chapel downtown (Broadway and Fulton).

6/27, 7 PM the amazing all-female jam-oriented klezmer/jazz ensemble Isle of Klezbos in the community garden on E 12th St btw Avenues A & B; in case of rain, the show moves to the JCC, 334 Amsterdam Ave @ 76th St.

6/27, 7 PM ageless first-wave reggae band Third World at Rockefeller Park.

6/28, 10 PM Veveritse Brass Band – as intense as Slavic Soul Party but without the hip-hop influence, and more improvisational – at Barbes.

6/29, 7 PM it’s the Battle of the Boroughs finals at the Greene Space. This competition isn’t just some dumb exploitative ripoff – they actually get some good bands here. Last year’s winner was Charanams, a smart, original Indian worldbeat group. $15 cover includes a beer or glass of wine; $30 gets you open wine and beer bar plus the show; acts TBA pending the winner of the Manhattan segment.

7/5, 7:30 PM dark female-fronted new wave/punk band Ingrid & the Defectors followed eventually by punk-era powerpop legend Bebe Buell and her band at Highline Ballroom, $15

7/7, 3 PM, in order to get into Central Park Summerstage to see Guided by Voices when they hit the stage around 5, you’ll have to stand through a whole set by at least one of the world’s suckiest bands. You might want to show up at 5 instead and take this one in from outside the arena.

7/7, 7:30 PM intense, virtuoso oudist and violinist Simon Shaheen and group kick off what will probably be a transcendent doublebill with politically fearless Algerian siren Souad Massi at Prospect Park Bandshell.

7/10, 7:30 PM well-loved indie classical orchestra the Knights play Schumann’s Cello Concerto in A minor, Op 129, Debussy’s Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun, Thomas Ades’ Three Studies from Couperin and Colin Jacobsen’s arrangement of the classic Persian theme Ascending Bird at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park, early arrival advised if you want a seat

7/11, 7:30 PM Missy Mazzoli and her moody, swirling, lushly artsy rock band Victoire at the Schimmel Auditorium at Pace University on Spruce St; free tix available 2 per person starting at 5 PM day of show.

7/12, noon, newschool blues powerhouse Shemekia Copeland at Metrotech Park in downtown Brooklyn, free. She’s either opening for or playing with what’s left of NRBQ – stay tuned.

7/14, 7 PM Her & Kings County at Highline Ballroom, $12 adv tix rec. First discovered this twangy, excellently tuneful country-rock band at a show at Hank’s one cold night back in the zeros. Frontwoman Monique Staffile was genuine and down-to-earth, and still is, and the band has gone on to be a big touring act.

7/15, 7:30 PM well-respected avant garde ensemble Alarm Will Sound play a program of new music TBA at the Schimmel Auditorium at Pace University on Spruce St; free tix available 2 per person starting at 5 PM day of show.

8/7, 7:30 PM violinist Lara St. John and friends celebrate the 25th anniversary of Astor Piazzolla’s 1987 Central Park concert at the Naumburg Bandshell, early arrival advised if you want a seat

8/8, 7 PM retro soul sensation Bettye LaVette at Madison Square Park.

Bard Summerscape Festival starts August 10. Yeah, it’s out of town, but this year’s program is pretty amazing, an examination of the world of Camille Saint-Saens and his turbulent artistic world. Transportation from NYC for ticketholders is available via a $30 shuttle from Lincoln Center or a free shuttle from the Poughkeepsie Metro North commuter train station.

8/15-16,7:30ish a mini bachata nueva festival at Highbridge Park uptown. On the 15th it’s Henry Santos from Aventura; the 16th has K Rose and 24 Horas

8/19, 3 PM get to Central Park Summerstage when the gates open if you want to see roots reggae harmony legends the Mighty Diamonds and Israeli Vibration. What’s left of Inner Circle play afterward (one can only imagine what the late Jacob Miller would have thought of the Fox network using a song by his old band as the theme for the most racist show on tv).

8/24, 7 PM the theme of this year’s Charlie Parker Festival at Marcus Garvey Park is Bird with Strings, a supposedly all-star lineup recreating pieces of that classic record. Then on the 25th, same place, same time it’s Jamire Williams’ Erimaj project, Derrick Hodge, singer Rene Marie and the presumably immortal Roy Haynes.

8/26, 6ish this year’s bill at the Charlie Parker Festival at Tompkins Square Park is uncharacteristically weak – although it’s nice to see chanteuse/organist Ernestine Anderson get the headline spot she’s deserved for a long time.

9/7 (yeah, it’s a long way off) is Brazilian World Music Day, check their blog for NYC happenings.

Arguably the world’s most vital and relevant art-rock band, Botanica has a new album out titled What Do You Believe In. Inspired by Mikhail Bulgakov’s diabolical parable The Master and the Margarita, it’s out from Rent-a-Dog in Europe, also available on limited edition vinyl in addition to the usual digital formats and streaming in its entirety at Botanica’s site. Where does this fall in the Botanica pantheon? On one hand, it has the band’s signature blend of John Andrews’ searing, reverb-toned guitar and frontman Paul Wallfisch’s alternately fiery and funereal organ and ominously echoing Wurlitzer piano; on the other, it’s their most brooding effort to date. Existential angst, doubt and dread linger throughout most of the songs, an ambience cruelly fueled by death of Wallfisch’s mother during the recording process. Now based in Germany – which makes sense since so much of Botanica’s fan base is European – this version of the group also features Jason Binnick’s terse, melodic bass and the Dresden Dolls’ Brian Viglione flexing his muscles on drums. Wallfisch’s lyrics quote liberally from Alexander Pushkin and Vladimir Mayakovsky; once again, Andrews contributes three of the album’s strongest tracks including the opening cut, Judgment, an elegantly bitter classical guitar waltz that ponders the repercussions of a “deal for my ambition” where he’d “surrender all the love I’d ever known…for a moment restless on this eternal flight.” It’s a good choice of opener: the rest is even darker.

A roaring gypsy rock march, Ball in Hell is all High Romantic angst, Andrews’ slide guitar keening over roaring sheets of noise that eventually explode and overwhelm everything in their path. Dog, with its tricky syncopation and watery Beatlesque guitar, has Wallfisch’s characteristically uneasy snarl, “I wanna walk with you Jesus but you don’t exist:” yet he also intimates that ultimately we’re probably better off a little crazy, alone and somewhat horrified, than comfortably and complacently delusional. A mighty, Procol Harum-esque anthem, Manuscripts Don’t Burn has Andrews melting picks and furiously tremolo-picking his strings to a savage whirlwind as Wallfisch cynically intones about how “Manuscripts don’t burn, said the master to the poet who took all night remembering, only to unlearn that wisdom once received and never questioned is a sin.” Everybody Lies, a pop anthem in heavy disguise, explores the perils of believing in absolutes: “From the gates of hell to the Great Gate of Kiev, if we can nail it to the wall it don’t scare us at all…But oh god, oh god, stick a man on the cross and everybody lies.”

The saddest song here is the wistfully beautiful Park Bench, a plaintively nostalgic view of late-life solitude that finally hits a roaring crescendo and then descends into hypnotic, Beatlesque psychedelia. It contrasts with the caustically furtive gypsy-pop of Money (an original, not the Pink Floyd faux-jazz hit), Wallfisch’s piano eventually tumbling unsteadily into the picture alongside Andrews’ jagged metal riffage. Kingdom of Doubt, by Andrews, builds quickly to an epic intensity with more furious chord-chopping, keyboard atmospherics and Binnick’s menacing, stalking bassline and then hits a catchy yet creepy chorus that wouldn’t be out of place in the Steve Wynn songbook. And then they bring it down to a dirge before bringing it up again: horrorstricken existentialist rock doesn’t get any more intense than this.

Frictionless Skates, another Andrews song, blends flamenco guitar and tongue-in-cheek lo-fi organ over a cheeky cabaret swing and a typically sarcastic lyric. Then they reach titanic, terrified heights again with Angel, Wallfisch beginning it with whispery, apprehensive atmospherics before Andrews finally takes it up with an endless, volcanically hammering interlude that might or might not be an illustration of Satan’s estrangement from his creator/twin – like most of the rest of the songs here, it raises more questions than it answers, and it ends resolved. The album closes with the melancholy, Russian-tinged Winter’s Evening and then the uneasy, Wurlitzer-fueled lullaby ambience of Past One O’Clock, a reflection on how to proceed once “the incident’s closed,” whatever that might have been. Allusive, defiantly unwilling to settle for easy answers or any kind of cliched resolution, it packs a quiet wallop. Count this among 2012’s best rock albums alongside Chicha Libre’s Canibalismo and Black Fortress of Opium’s Stratospherical. Wallfisch plays the dark rock night he created back in 2008, Small Beast at the Delancey, on May 7 at 10 PM accompanying both his longtime noir cabaret collaborator Little Annie, Bauhaus’ David J and then ending the night with a more-or-less solo set: it promises to be one of the high points of live music in New York this year.

How irresponsible is it to sit on an album for over a year before you do something with it? Admit it: there are albums on your hard drive, or your phone, or maybe even under your bed if you have one, that you haven’t heard yet. The same applies in the world of music blogs, probably multiplied by some ridiculously high number. From the point of view of Andrew Maurer a.k.a. Slopes of Distant Hills, that idea is probably something less than attractive…but better late than never, he’s got an album out on insurgent Chicago label Luxotone that you should hear. If you like the idea of Bon Iver – angst-driven rusticity – but can’t stand the reality, this album is for you. Maurer’s voice has a fragile, breathy, anxious tone that contrasts with the steady dexterity of his fingers on the acoustic guitar. Some of the songs here evoke Nick Drake, others are more bluesy or bluegrass-oriented. As with everything Luxotone has put out, the production is rich and artful: producer/multi-instrumentalist George Reisch adds his usual terse, often poignant layers of guitar, keyboards, bass and drums.

The opening track is Sage Leaf, a minor-key blend of Britfolk and indie rock that builds to a lush crescendo of acoustic guitars: “Left the sea crumbling/Left the wind rustling.” It sets the scene for much of what’s to come. A folk-rock number, Sinking in My Heart builds to a hypnotic interlude and then picks up with yet another one of those intricately gorgeous passages with stately, incisive layers of guitars from Reisch: a little surf and some blues this time around.

Long and Dustry Trail sets pensive Drake-style pastoral imagery to an aptly nocturnal C&W tune: “I work in the town serving coffee to strangers; if they say something bright they could become my friends,” Maurer observes somewhat caustically. He blends the folk with oldschool soul on When Birds Fly, digs into Piedmont blues with Reason, then mines a Dylanesque Buckets of Rain vibe with Your Little Smile. Buddha Eye blends reggae with a trippy freak-folk feel and echoey Give Peace a Chance-style vocals and a completely unexpected hip-hop interlude; then he leaps into A Thousand Kisses, a catchy T-Rex style glam/folk anthem. The absolute stunner here is Anyone, a brooding, alienated, Arthur Lee-esque psychedelic folk number that winds up with a lusciously arranged guitar-and-keys outro. The album closes with Saved by Flight, an apprehensive, incisively fingerpicked acoustic blues tune. RIYL: Nick Drake, Love, the Zombies, Steve Kilbey’s solo stuff. And if some of the Deerhunter/Sufjahn Stevens/Bon Iver crowd catch on to this, so much the better.

Boutique label Secret Stash Records began as a self-release project for a couple of Afro-Peruvian folk projects. Since then they scored a mighty coup with the first American version of one of the iconic albums of chicha (the inimitably Peruvian blend of surf music, psychedelic rock and a million south-of-the-border sounds), Los Destellos’ 1971 classic Constelacion. One of their latest rediscoveries is also a doozy, and like Constelacion, it may be the first time it’s seen an official release in the US, a crime since it was recorded for the label that James Brown made famous. Soul singer Mickey Murray’s People Are Together goes back to 1970. Sadly, its Sam Cooke-inspired title track and its message to the entire world to “stop this discrimination thing” and stir up “a big old melting pot” reputedly met with fervent resistance from urban radio at a time when defiant messages of black power and solidarity were all the rage (and at point in history, there was every reason why they should have been). It appears that the label withdrew the record at that point, effectively putting Murray’s career trajectory on ice.

Murray’s vocal style is often raspy and fervent in a Wilson Pickett vein, but he can also be elegant like Otis Redding. The band, and the arrangements are primo. It may not be true that they don’t make records like this anymore (Sharon Jones, the One and Nines and Spanglish Fly all mine a similar deep molasses analog sound), but there aren’t a lot of them. The bass here sounds like it’s been amped up a little in the remastering, which is fine, because the groove is laid-back yet penetrating: a hollowbody Vox played through an old tube amp maybe?

And the tracks are strong, and sound older than their turn-of-the-70s vintage. Try a Little Harder features ornate hammer-on soul guitar, a slowly burning brass arrangement and incisively minimalistic piano. Deadric Malone’s Ace of Spades has a vintage Curtis Mayfield vibe – it would have made a great blaxploitation movie theme. I Found Out, with its funky Rhodes piano and staccato guitar, works a mid-60s JBs vibe, while the band gives Money – the future Flying Lizards hit – a psychedelic Memphis funk treatment.

They go back to the Godfather of Soul for Fat Gal’s insistent, bass-driven pulse, “all meat and no potatoes,” as Murray puts it. There’s a brand-new dance, The Buzzard, complete with moves, growls and a shout-out to Murray’s hometown of Augusta, Georgia; there’s also a bizarrely spot-on critique of suburban sprawl, Explosive Population, clocking in at a brief minute and 46 seconds. Murray’s version of The Fever goes for a hastily shuffling feel with organ and latin-influenced percussion in lieu of Peggy Lee boudoir ambience. The album winds up with a blues-tinged talking-soul vamp and a surprisingly hard-rocking closing track with fuzztone bass and wah guitar. In addition to the usual digital formats, the album is available on limited-edition high-quality vinyl: fans of oldschool soul are in for a treat. RIYL: James Brown, Lee Fields, Charles Bradley, Willie Hightower, Howard Tate and other underrated 60s/70s soul crooners who’ve recently gotten a well-deserved second look.

Don’t let the presence of somebody from the Decemberists scare you away from Portland, Oregon songwriter Leigh Marble’s new album Where the Knives Meet Between the Rows: there’s nothing remotely indie about it. The playing – especially the terse, elegantly biting piano – is strong and so are Marble’s tense, brooding vocals. And there’s even a savagely amusing, glammy song here titled Holden (after the Salinger character) that mocks the deliberate ineptitude that defines indie rock and the trendoids who make it: “Oh you sweet dumb creatures, missing half your features, disfigured by design, singing with half a heart…” It’s got a singalong outro to rival the cruellest thing Elvis Costello ever did to an audience.

But that’s a rare light moment here. Marble wrote the songs on the album during a harrowing period after his girlfriend had been diagnosed with breast cancer. But rather than bailing, Marble did the noble thing and married her; after treatment, she regained her health, and he got a good record out of it. Unsurprisingly, it’s pretty gloomy – is there a silver lining to mirror what ultimately turned out to be a win-win situation for Marble? Not really. This is his third album, his first since 2007 and by far his darkest.

The first two tracks are free downloads. The opening cut, Walk has an ominously strolling, noir vibe anchored in the low registers of the organ, piano and synth. “Gonna walk until my heart stops pumping,” Marble insists. Is the surprisingly peaceful interlude midway through a sign of better days to come? Nope. The second free download, Jackrabbit sounds like Big Star taking a mighty stab at 70s stadium rock: it’s a cynical, suspensefully imagistic look at the psychology of corruption, whether political or otherwise.

“I know you wanna leave me, well I wanna leave me too,” Marble intones on the terminally depressed, country-tinged lullaby, Goodnight. The understatedly desperate Evil features boomy Mo Tucker drums, cello and accordion: the way Marble uses macabre imagery to set up a scenario that will resonate with anyone who doesn’t have health insurance is artful to the extreme. He follows that with the equally bleak Nail, a dirgey piece of gothic Americana:

So keep your eyes on that nail in the coffinOn the thread as it winds off the bobbinAnd there at the end of your ropeYou’ll test the aerodynamics of hope

Whitehorse is Luke Doucet and Melissa McClelland. Together they make eclectic, dark garage rock which might seem like a contradiction in terms until you consider what an excellent, diverse guitarist Doucet is. Which makes it no surprise that there are numerous other genres on their album. It opens with a meandering spoken-word number set to a Marc Ribot-style noir guitar interlude that goes spiraling with a flamenco feel. Those are just two styles in Doucet’s arsenal, and they don’t return until a reprise at the end. In between there’s a lot of bluesiness, a ton of reverb and lots of vocal harmonies. Both Doucet and McClelland are strong singers, harmonizing much like the Snow’s Pierre de Gaillande and Hilary Downes.

With its simple stomping beat and lo-fi vibe, Killing Time Is Murder could be the White Stripes with brains. Emerald Isle could do without the stream-of-consciousness lyrical torrents, but the noir rockabilly tune is cool, not just because it has a glockenspiel. Passenger 24 goes back to punk-blues stomp that distantly evokes the Cramps, McClelland’s passenger high on coke alongside a “hopped-up driver chasing the moon.”

If commercial played good songs, Broken would be a monster hit (is there a college radio station where you are? Are they playing this track to death? They should be). It’s a wickedly catchy country tune disguised as backbeat rock, with a vicious duet that does justice to a Blood on the Tracks reference. “You’ve got to have a heart to have a broken one,” Doucet snarls, “I need a girl like you like a hole in the head.” The album winds up with a torchy, oldtime-flavored swing duet, McClelland’s lurid vocals backed by noir atmospherics from the organ and steel guitar. The only miss here is a pointless cover of Springsteen’s easy-listening hit I’m On Fire, which isn’t as annoying as the original but it’s pretty close. With originals as good as the rest of the tracks here, who needs covers?

Chris Erikson is oldschool. He’s a newspaperman, covering many beats at the New York Post. He’s also a brilliant guitarist (which is kind of oldschool these days as well) who’s been in demand in the New York scene for a long time, backing such A-list talents as Matt Keating and Florence Dore. Yet he’s not your typically guitarslinger: there are maybe six parts on his new album Lost Track of the Time that you could conceivably call solos. Two of them open and close the album on a boisterous Bakersfield country note, the first a jaunty Buck Owens-like run using the low registers almost like a baritone guitar, the second a high-strung boogie passage in a very cleverly composed mystery story titled The Worst Thing That Ever Happened. Otherwise, Erikson plays chords, elegant riffs and pieces of both, sometimes picking them with his fingers like Keith Richards, sometimes evoking twangmeisters from Duane Eddy to Steve Earle (who’s obviously a big influence here), or even 80s paisley underground legends True West. He’s that interesting, and that tasteful: he always leaves you wanting more.

But there are plenty of good players out there. What elevates this album above your typical Twangville tuneage is the songwriting. Erikson writes allusively, his sharp, frequently bitter, pensive lyrics leaving just enough detail for the listener to fill in the blanks. His changes are catchy and anthemic, driven by a purist melodic sensibility and a love of subtle shifts in tone, touch and attack. Along with the dynamics – something you don’t often see in music like this – there’s also a lot of implied melody. Erikson also happens to be an excellent singer. On the angriest or craziest stuff here, his voice takes on a Paul Westerberg-style rasp; otherwise, his drawl shifts between pensive and sardonic, depending on the lyrics. Again, Steve Earle comes to mind. As you would expect, Erikson’s band the Wayward Puritans is first-rate, with Jason Mercer on bass, Will Rigby on drums plus frequent contributions from Keating on keyboards along with Jay Sherman-Godfrey on guitars, with Bob Hoffnar and Jonathan Gregg on pedal steel, Kill Henry Sugar’s Erik Della Pena on lapsteel, Hem’s Mark Brotter and Gary Maurer (who produced) on drums and acoustic guitar, respectively.

The best song on the album, and the one instant classic here is Ear to the Ground. It starts with a richly clanging, intricate series of chords that are going to have everyone reaching for their six-string: it’s that gorgeous.Those changes come around again a couple of times but Erikson makes you wait for them. It’s a bitter kiss-off song, but a very subtle one: until the end, the story is what doesn’t happen. Erikson does the same on another first-rate backbeat rock track a little later on, The Subject Came Up, an elephant-in-the-room scenario where “by the next morning a chalk outline was all that remained” of what ultimately turned out to be a dealbreaker. The most sarcastic song here, a big 6/8 country anthem titled Guilty, has its obviously wrongfully accused narrator asking for the court to “just read me my rights and I’ll sign on the line” over a rich backdrop of mandolin and dobro.

The funniest songs on the album are both country tunes: the first a honkytonk number about a freeloading girlfriend, lit up by some juicy piano from Keating. The other is When I Write My Memoir, another kiss-off song, but with an unexpected punchline, not the first thing you’d think of from a writer dreaming of seeing his autobio top the charts at amazon. Was That Me sets a tongue-in-cheek, disingenuous lyric to blistering highway rock. There’s also the long, aphoristically unwinding rock anthem On My Way and a couple of pensive, brooding acoustic numbers, In the Station and When It Comes Down, the latter with soaring steel from Hoffnar and a welcome return to the recording studio by Dore, who supplies equally soaring harmony vocals. Count this among the best albums to make it over the transom here this year.

Chris Erikson and the Wayward Puritans, like a lot of New York’s best bands, made Lakeside Lounge their home. Now that Lakeside’s days are numbered (April 30 is the last big blowout there), let’s hope they find another sometime soon.

Desert blues albums are best enjoyed as a whole. Sure, you can break the individual tracks up and scatter them amongst different playlists, but a good desert blues album sets a mood. The Toure-Raichel Collective’s new album The Tel Aviv Session is a different kind of desert blues album, a collaboration between pyrotechnic Malian guitarist Vieux Farka Toure and Israeli keyboardist/bandleader Idan Raichel. Raichel is an insatiably omnivorous player who seemingly never met a style he didn’t want to master; Toure admits to thinking at first that Raichel was a “crazy hippie,” but on this generally low-key, daylong collaboration in an Israeli recording studio, the two make a good team. Although he plays acoustic guitar here, Toure still has the restless, uneasy edge that makes him such a compelling electric player. Raichel shows off a potent understanding of chromatically-fueled, Arabic-tinged motifs, often playing with a rippling staccato feel that, especially when he mutes the strings inside the piano, evokes the sound of a balafon or a qanun. In one passage, he brushes the strings for shimmery, harplike glissandos. Behind them, bassist Yossi Fine – who has toured with Toure, mentored Raichel in his early years and may ultimately have been responsible for jumpstarting this session – plays endlessly hypnotic loops in tandem with percussionist Souleymane Kane. French jazz harmonica player Frederic Yonnet guests on a rustic 1920s flavored blues jam that evokes Hazmat Modine in a particularly boisterous mood; Yankale Segal, from Raichel’s touring band, adds a third layer of richly glistening textures on Iranian tar lute on another. And the final cut, where the band finally cuts loose with an all-too-brief, soaring crescendo, features haunting, intense kamancheh (Iranian spiked fiddle) by Mark Eliyahu.

The rest of the album alternates between slinky two-chord desert blues vamps, and Middle Eastern piano music, sometimes in the same jam. Toure reveals a fondness for open chords and a biting facility for raga-like passages; Raichel often mimics Toure’s quicksilver hammer-on attack. Most of the songs here are long, slowly and casually coalescing out of themes typically introduced by the guitar. When Raichel supplies the central riff, Toure responds with fluttering, muted chromatics of his own, or simply steers the jam south toward Mali. The album liner notes mention “frequent breaks for coffee;” one suspects that there were other aromas wafting through the studio that day. The most hypnotic track, a lush, warmly major-key cut that brings to mind the Stones’ Moonlight Mile is followed by a brief, rather impatient, upbeat cut driven by Toure. Then they follow that with the single most hypnotic cut, featuring Raichel on Fender Rhodes, adding a vibraphone-like rhythmic bounce against Kane’s boomy calabash. It’s out now on Cumbancha; fans of desert blues, Middle Eastern music and intelligent jam bands ought to check it out. And it goes without saying: this collaboration between a Muslim African and an Israeli Jew underscores the argument that if we took the rabbis and mullahs (and American agitators) out of the picture and left everything to the musicians, there would be no war in the Middle East.

Here’s an album you won’t find much about in English: long-running Leningrad art-rockers Auktyon have a new one, their first studio effort in a dozen years, titled Yula (“top,” in English, i.e. the thing that spins). This is music for people who think that not only is Gogol Bordello NOT weird but not weird enough, who need something considerably more esoteric in order to reach exotica nirvana – or exotica overkill. The surreal irony (real irony, not sarcasm, which so many people have come to confuse with irony) of the Russian lyrics will be lost on most English-speaking listeners, but the music is smart, consistently surprising and utterly defies categorization. This band seems to be influenced as much by Russian folk and European jazz as rock, which may be a function of the instrumentation: sax, clarinet, trumpet, trombone and violin along with guitars, keys, bass and drums. Guitar polymath Marc Ribot elevates several of these tracks with his inimitable blend of noir menace and surrealistic noisy attack.

The opening track sets the tone, a brooding, minor-key acoustic guitar melody with smoky sax accents that builds to a big, anthemic electric crescendo reminiscent of famous pre-Glasnost Russian rockers Aquarium, or the band that influenced them the most, Jethro Tull. The second cut, Homba nicks the bassline from the old surf rock classic Diamond Head and adds Hava Nagila guitar allusions overhead; a bass clarinet loop anchors sketchy atmospherics overhead. Oh yeah, this stuff is very psychedelic.

Three short, roughly three-minute songs follow. Meteli (Snowstorms) is pulsing backbeat pop with swirly organ and whispery vocals. Shiski slowly comes together out of a rather random, free jazz-influenced intro with flute, pizzicato violin and acoustic guitars and quickly turns into a catchy pop song in disguise. Polden (Noon) is the brightest of the three, a minor-key gypsy rock song with some tasty clarinet and violin that the band runs through a phaser effect.

The weirdest track here is Priroda (Nature), a bizarre blend of Russian folk and Afrobeat, followed by the equally weird, new wave style Kozhanyi (Leather), which sounds like Wire trying their hand at late 70s fusion. You might think that’s yucky – it’s actually pretty amusing. The most potently memorable song here is Mimo (By), a darkly anthemic art-rock anthem in 7/8 time that goes out with a long psychedelic interlude, mingling layer upon layer of echoey guitar textures with off-kilter keys. There’s also a blippy Macedonian-flavored gypsy fusion groove with all kinds of deftly overlapping riffage from the entire horn section; Karandashi i Palochki (Crayons and Sticks), which blends Afrobeat with noisy stadium rock moves and then a warmly hypnotic, atmospheric interlude, and finally, the wryly scurrying, apprehensively crescendoing title track. This is probably the darkest thing Auktyon has put out to date. Known for their unpredictable, high-energy, theatrical live shows, they’re playing the album release at le Poisson Rouge on June 20 and then on June 24 they’ll be at Joe’s Pub.